UK trade union Unite pledged on Friday to promote abolition of US auto producer Ford's plans to reduce jobs at its facilities in the United Kingdom

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th January, 2019) UK trade union Unite pledged on Friday to promote abolition of US auto producer Ford's plans to reduce jobs at its facilities in the United Kingdom.

On Thursday, Ford announced its plans to reshuffle its business in Europe. As part of the re-organization process, a plant in France will be closed, production of some unprofitable models will be ended, and thousands of jobs will be cut, including a total of 1,150 in the United Kingdom, mainly at the Ford engine plant in the Welsh town of Bridgend.

"Unite is fully committed to opposing any compulsory redundancies and campaigning strongly for Bridgend to have a viable future. We will be consulting our members very closely in the days and weeks ahead," Des Quinn, the national officer for automotive industries at Unite, said as quoted in the union's statement.

Quinn said that the job cuts would be a "devastating blow" able to trigger "grave implications for the Welsh economy."

"There are a number of factors behind this grim news - the main ones being challenging market conditions for carmakers generally, a lack of a coherent industrial strategy from the UKgovernment and the uncertainty created by Brexit," the officer added.

He went on to say that the UKcarindustry had experienced a "renaissance" over the past two decades, calling on the government, the automakers, and the unions to "fight very hard to maintain the environment that made that success possible."

While 1,700 people are currently employed at the engine plant in Bridgend, around 1,000 are going to be sacked by 2021. The rest of the job cuts will account for Ford's transport operations, with truck drivers expected to be affected.

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